A Lich is an undead former Magic-user or Cleric (of at least 10th-level with all spells and powers intact) who used dark magic to prolong its life into a state of undeath. A lich initially appears rather ghoulish or zombie-like, but after some time its body degrades and it begins to appear skeletal. In spite of its great powers, a lich will act to preserve itself by any means it has at its disposal. It knows the value and function of all magical items in its lair, and will use them to their greatest effect.

Simply encountering a lich for the first time is so terrifying that the subject must save vs. Spells or flee for 2d6 rounds. A lich’s gaze is also terrifying; effective up to 30 feet, the affected target must save vs. Spells or be paralyzed in fright for 2d4 rounds. A lich prefers to attack with spells from a distance. A lich that hits a living target with its touch deals 1d8 points of damage and drains the victim of 1d4 points of Constitution while healing itself an equal amount of damage.

The Constitution damage is permanent, a result of physical and psychic drain. Due to longevity and/or vitality traits, elves can ignore the first 10 points of Constitution drain; dwarves the first 4 points, and halflings the first 2 points. Lost Constitution can be regained at a rate of 1 point per casting of a restoration spell; nothing else (except a wish) can restore Constitution lost to a lich. Any character whose Constitution is reduced to zero dies immediately, but will rise in 1d4 rounds as a lesser wight under the command of the lich. Use statistics for the wight (in the Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules), but instead of energy drain, the lesser wight deals 1d4 points of damage plus 1 point of Constitution damage. Anyone who becomes a lesser wight and then is slain is permanently dead and cannot be raised (but may still be reincarnated).

A lich can only be hit by magical weapons or spells. Like a normal skeleton, it takes only half damage from edged weapons, and only a single point from arrows, bolts, or sling stones (plus any magical bonus). As with all undead, it can be Turned by a Cleric (as vampire, but with a -6 penalty on the check), and is immune to sleep, charm, or hold spells. Despite having Magic-user or Clerical levels, the lich uses 1d8 for rolling HP like other monsters.

A lich’s life-force is kept safe within an object called a canopticept, often hidden and protected. This allows the lich to persist even when its physical form is destroyed; in that event, the monster’s physical form will slowly regenerate at a rate of 1 HP per hour. In order to completely destroy a lich, its canopticept must be located and destroyed; however, only very powerful magic or catastrophic natural damage (a disintegrate spell, a wish, or throwing it into an active volcano) can actually damage the object.

The canopticept is sometimes incorrectly identified as a phylactery, possibly because some liches choose to use such a device of worship profanely in this way. A canopticept can in fact have almost any form, though almost all such devices fit comfortably in a person’s hand.

Liches are the remains of powerful wizard-priests who, through fell magics and sinister grimoires, have cheated death and live on beyond the grave in a decaying shell that still revels in awesome magical energies. Unholy magics and an unwavering devotion are not the only things keeping them on the prime material plane. Their souls are already traded to dark gods, but a spark of their essence remains that must be encased in a talisman of sorts. This trinket is a requirement of their Unlife, but no scholar knows how or why this is.

The lair of a lich will often be a complex underworld maze or a wickedly diseased stretch of thick wilderness, at whose black heart resides a tower riddled with magic traps and deadly guardians. Liches do not suffer the fools who would tread upon their mysteries.

Each lich will be able to cast an impressive battery of spells, and those with magic user abilities will have multiple copies of powerful spell tomes. Their magical ability, at a minimum, must be 18th, as only those mortals have travelled so far down the path of magic have even a hope of mastering the rituals of Lichdom. The mere touch of a lich will inflict 2 dice of cold damage upon the victim, and they must save vs paralysation or be held frozen to the spot for 3d8 turns. Anything below 6th level beholding a lich (even in a reflection or a projected image) must save vs magic or never return to the area again.

Often dressed in rich decaying rags that were exquisite in life, liches are now horrors to behold. They are cadaverous in appearance, with unholy pin-points of green light emanating from the otherwise empty pits that are the eye-sockets of its fleshless skull. Diseased and leprous tatters of meat cling feebly to ancient bones, reeking with the rot of the grave.

Liches are believed to feast on Soul Worms.